Heartache, renewal on Alela Diane’s ‘About Farewell’

Share via e-mail

The most devastating thing Alela Diane sings on her new album — and there are many — goes like this: “I heard somebody say / That the brightest lights / Cast the biggest shadows / So honey, I’ve got to let you go.”

That comes from “About Farewell,” the title track of the album, which addresses the heartache and renewal that trail a failed marriage. After a pair of records that amplified her aesthetic more along the lines of rustic country, her latest is a return to simpler forms, a testament to the power of an acoustic guitar backing an artist with something to say (and with a voice you’d expect from a saloon singer).

At times the songs are so visceral, you almost feel sheepish knowing so intimately what Diane endured. She paints her sense of loss in vivid hues. “Honey, there is nothing I can do,” she repeats on “Nothing I Can Do,” before unleashing the guillotine: “. . . to save you from yourself.” Later in the song she calls her man “a hound without a collar.”

Only toward the end of the album does Diane, who was raised in California and is now based in Portland, Ore., admit she might have been to blame, too. “Oh, the mess I’ve made,” she sings over the pastoral melancholy of “Rose & Thorn.” But “About Farewell” isn’t about pointing fingers. It’s a brave account of how you can fall out of love just as easily as you fell in. Like the first blush of a new romance, it is intoxicating. (Out Tuesday digitally, in stores July 30)

Get The Weekender in your inbox:

The Globe's top picks for what to see and do each weekend, in Boston and beyond.

BostonGlobe.com complimentary digital access has been provided to you, without a subscription, for free starting today and ending in 14 days. After the free trial period, your free BostonGlobe.com digital access will stop immediately unless you sign up for BostonGlobe.com digital subscription. Current print and digital subscribers are not eligible for the free trial.

Thanks & Welcome to Globe.com

You now have unlimited access for the next two weeks.

BostonGlobe.com complimentary digital access has been provided to you, without a subscription, for free starting today and ending in 14 days. After the free trial period, your free BostonGlobe.com digital access will stop immediately unless you sign up for BostonGlobe.com digital subscription. Current print and digital subscribers are not eligible for the free trial.